4AD have always had a good ear for the creation of compilations — The Birthday Party’s Hits was total cherry-picked greatness for one, then there’s Lonely is an Eyesore, The 13 Year Itch; the list stretches into the horizon. Now this Cocteau Twins ‘best of’ (originally marketed to strike the American market back in the mid-Eighties and now lushly re-mastered for 2015) is further evidence of this. Even now the sticky tar-pit macadam of the cover gives little away to the mesmerizing collection of tunes it contains; I love the way it makes you feel like an archaeologist as you remove the vinyl from its sleeve. Another 23 Envelope masterpiece that spoke volumes and has been faithfully restored to its

Nobody ever sounded like the Cocteau Twins, a band so startlingly original that they spurred a lot of imitators; they took the jangle of indie to a whole different level, an otherworldly soak that no doubt inspiring the shoegrazery verve that would follow in their wake. By 1985 they already had three albums under their belts, but their sound was still evolving to ever-more luscious territories, concocting a few catchy (unintentional) hits along the way; amazing realised pearls such as “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” and “Spangle Maker”.

Now Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay were two EPs originally released two weeks apart from each other (each a companion piece for the other) that attempted to follow in that “Spangle Maker” vein but ended up more subtle, atmospheric — dare I say experimental affairs in comparison. An output

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"When they’re all playing harmonising black metal riffs, it creates a sound as full and dense as the forests of Washington State that inspire their eco-friendly riff collage" @wittrofficial @aluk_todolo live at Heaven https://t.co/FbWfunzE6w

"The English Heretic project has been consistently putting out strange and beautiful collections for a while now and this release comes with an OZ-style booklet, lurid and bloody and filled with ephemera..." https://t.co/EHK6vpWzZc